Students Convicted Of Rape, Sodomy

Pair May Face 10-year Sentences

NEWPORT NEWS — Two college students were convicted Tuesday of rape and sodomy in the gang rape of a 17-year-old Hampton University freshman. They each face up to 10 years in prison.

Michael P. Thompson and Charles H. Smith Jr., both of whom were 18-year-old freshmen at Bowie State University in Maryland at the time of the October 1989 attack, were identified by the victim in court Monday as the initiators of a night of violence and repeated sexual assaults.

Following two days of testimony, a Circuit Court jury of 10 women and two men deliberated an hour and a half before finding Smith and Thompson guilty of all charges. Jurors recommended a sentence of five years in prison on each conviction.

Judge Randolph T. West will sentence the men in August after reviewing background reports. He cannot exceed the jury's recommendation.

Smith and Thompson admitted they had oral sex and sexual intercourse with the woman at the same time, but they claimed she consented. The woman, now 19 and living in another state, said the men pinned her to a bed and forced her to commit the acts although she objected.

``This is not a case about passion,'' Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Dennis H. Duncan said in his final argument. ``It's a case about power.

``There was no love in that room. There was no lust.''

Defense lawyer Sharon Coles-Stewart countered that the woman had sent signals that night that she wanted to have sex. She noted that the woman dined at a restaurant with as many as 10 men and then accompanied them to an apartment in River Park Towers in downtown Newport News.

Coles-Stewart also noted that the woman drank Southern Comfort straight from the bottle. The victim testified she only had a small amount and was not drunk when the assaults began. She said one of the men told her they were going to a party. The gang rape occurred in Terrence C. Gatling's 20th-story apartment the night of Oct. 7 and into the morning of Oct. 8. Smith, Thompson and several other Bowie State students were visiting Gatling after a football game in Norfolk.

In two previous trials, jurors acquitted one man and sent two others to prison. Gatling, an HU student at the time, was convicted in April 1990 of sodomy and sentenced to seven years in prison. In the same trial, Lloyd E. Irvin Jr. was acquitted.

In March of this year, Derrick C. Evans, another Bowie State student, was convicted of attempted rape.